It was something that went unsaid between the three of them.  A statement, maybe.  A feeling, an emotion.  A truth.  An unspoken caring, a bond that kept them together.

Her fingers folded over a pale hand, her eyes trained on a dark sleeping, newly mangled face.  She would give them her company, while her lover slept in another room.  She would be here for them.  Her Boys.  Her children that were not her children.

And the truth would hang heavy and unspoken, because it was the truth, and the truth was always the hardest said.  Especially when it was the scariest feeling, the most heartbreaking of emotions.

And still, now, before and ever more, Arana would give her Boys her love.